by Christine Healy, Wildlife Biologist
Complete the lyrics: Nothing else matters in the whole wide world when you’re in love with a…
If you said Jersey Girl, then you’d be correct! Coincidentally, that’s also where volunteers and supporters alike gathered last month to show their love for amphibians. Jersey Girl Brewing in Mount Olive, that is.
Two years ago, we partnered with Jersey Girl to host a trivia event to raise awareness for our Amphibian Crossing Project, an initiative that seeks to reduce mortality among populations of frogs and salamanders whose migratory pathways are bisected by roadways. We chose the location based on its proximity to our largest crossing site, Waterloo Road, in the hopes that many of our hardworking volunteers could attend. We had a great turnout and a lot of fun. Following several requests, we decided to bring it back this year for round two.
Participants answered questions from 10 categories including famous “Sals” of culture and fiction, animal track ID, and “Frog or Fraud”, where mystery sound clips were designated as frogs or imposters. Not every category was as it seemed though- plants and trees may have been intimidating to those who don’t generally spend their days getting slapped in the face by poison sumac (…just a me problem?) but with answers like “whomping willow” and “Truffula tree”, there were topics for everyone, regardless of expertise. There were many impressive scores submitted at the end of the night but it was ultimately Team Fat Fish who took home the salamander medallions.
We’d like to extend our gratitude to all the folks who came out to play, especially since trivia coincided with the terrible smog resulting from the Canadian wildfires. We worried that that might deter people but attendance was strong and everyone brought their A(mphibian)-game. Also a huge shout-out to our friends at Jersey Girl Brewing for donating their event space and to Jersey Mike’s of Hackettstown for providing complementary subs.
All proceeds from this event went to support CWF’s amphibian initiatives.
Great evening at Jersey Girl Brewery. Fun trivia contest and good beer with friends to support CWF and the amazing work our biologists are doing to protect rare wildlife. Look forward to next year!
A great event, and the beers were good too :). Thanks to Christine, Liz, Nicole and everyone at CWF for all their hard work to pull this together.